ORIOLUS MONACHUS 11 



The Tring Museum has also received a fine pair of this 

 beautiful and rare Oriole from Uguru, due west of Zanzibar 

 Island. 



Oriolus monachus. 



Tuixlus mouacha, Gm. S. N. ii. p. 824 (1788) Abyssinia. 



Oriolus monachus, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iii. p. 216 ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. 



No. 571 (1896) ; Eeichen. Vog. Afr. ii. p. 657 (190-3) ; Grant, Ibis, 



1904, p. 256 S. Abyssinia; Neum. J. f. O. 1905, p. 232. 

 Oriolus meloxita, Riipp. N. Wirb. Vog. p. 29, pi. 12, fig. 1 (1835) Abyssinia. 

 Oriolus meneliki, Blunclell and Lovat, Bull. B. O. C. x. p. 19 (1899) 



Burka; Grant, Ibis, 1900, p. 122, pi. 2; Eeichen. Vog. Afr. ii. 



p. 657 (1903). 

 Oriolus monachus permistus, Neum. O. M. 1905, p. 145 Gadat ; id. 



J. f. 0. 1905, pp. 233, 235. 

 The Nun Thrush, Lath. Gen. Syn. ii. p. 77 (1783). 



Adult. Entire head, upper half of neck and the throat black ; remainder 

 of neck, the upper tail-coverts, breast, thigh and under tail-coverts golden 

 yellow ; the neck shading into a slightly more olive yellow tinge on the 

 back, scapulars and lesser wing-coverts ; tail, with centre feathers and more 

 than the basal half of the others yellowish olive, with dark shafts and a 

 trace of a broad blackish bar ; remainder of the tail including the shafts 

 bright yellow (the amount of the bright yellow and of the dark bar on the 

 tail is very variable, the former increasing and the latter decreasing as the 

 bird grows older) ; most of the greater wing- coverts and the secondaries have 

 broad grey edges and a wash of yellow towards the back; primaries with 

 narrow ashy-white edges ; primary coverts with broad white ends ; under 

 surface of quills dusky ash, whitish towards their inner edges ; under wing- 

 coverts yellow, with a few feathers next to the quills white. Iris red ; bill 

 brownish red ; feet pale grey. Total length 9-1 inches, culmen 0-9, wing 

 5-6, tail 4-0, tarsus 0-9. Abyssinia (Schaufuss). 



The Nun Black-headed Oriole is confined to North-east 

 Africa, where it ranges over Shoa and Abyssinia into 

 Bogosland. 



Although this was the earliest purely African Oriole 

 recognised, it is one of the rarest and most localised forms. 

 It was discovered by Bruce, probably in Shoa, and was 



